Well…the emergency room wasn’t exactly where we thought we’d start our weekend, but misadventure is our middle name!
Right off the bat, I want to say that everyone is fine. It really wasn’t THAT big of a deal. But in boating, everything turns into a big deal. There’s added complications and things to think through. But- bottom line, we’re okay.
Our Friday evening started out awesome. We grilled some chicken and veggies and began to prepare our boat for an early departure today (Saturday.)
Boat info for my non-boating friends: There’s a pretty long checklist of things to do before moving your boat. One thing we have is a retractable power cord (it does exactly what the name implies.)
Although we were not unplugging from the shore power, Brent decided to pull the power cord in a bit. Unfortunately when he flipped the switch, it broke.
Not that big of a deal (we hope!) He jumped on Amazon to order a new switch and unfortunately, there were options. He realized he needed to remove the old one in order to see what we needed.
(Meanwhile, I went inside to put Miller to bed.)
Mary Grace came running in saying “Quick, Daddy needs a band-aid!” Something told me he needed more than a band-aid so I grabbed a kitchen towel.
When I went outside, I really thought he’d cut off his finger. Apparently he was trying to remove the caulk on the switch plate and his hand slipped.
Brent grabbed the towel from me and immediately got off the boat to go get one of the marina cars to go to the Emergency Room.
In a state of calm panic I got Brent’s wallet and our masks. I ran down to another dock where we had some friends and asked them to help with the kids.
Unfortunately, the closest place for stitches was the Emergency Room about 45 minutes away.
On our way we were finally able to reevaluate the situation and make some clearer decisions. Since I wasn’t going to be allowed in the hospital (Covid19 rules), it made more sense for me to go back to the boat with the kids.
The Emergency Room was packed. And Brent knew he was in for a pretty long night.
We called our friends and asked if one of them could come get me at the hospital so I could leave the marina’s car for Brent to bring home once he was finished.
Several hours and 12 stitches later, Brent checked out and made the 45 minute drive back to the boat. Arriving back around 1AM!
Miller woke up very concerned about Brent this morning. Drawing on his own experience in the emergency room for stitches a few years ago, he had a couple of questions for Brent:
“Did they give you a stuffed animal?”
“Did they bring you ice cream?”
Brent and Miller were equally bothered that the answer to both questions was “no.” Miller immediately ran back to his room and brought Brent a few of his favorite stuffies. And promised Brent that we’d get him some ice cream today…
We’ve both replayed the night several times in our mind wondering if there was something we could have done differently. (Aside from the accident itself.)
We were very fortunate to be at a marina that just leaves the keys in the ignition of their courtesy cars. And we are SO grateful for boat friends who could jump in and help us out. I’m honestly not sure what we would have done without either of those blessings!
Praying this will be our one and only dramatic emergency room boating story!
Thanks for keeping up with our (mis)adventures!
I’ll be back to my typical, fun posts soon…but in the meantime, you can check out:
The One With The Unexpected Products We Use Living On A Boat
Montana Misadventure: Mistakes We Won’t Make Again
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[…] last summer. It was terrible and really scary. You can read more about the specifics in my post, The One With The Emergency Room. Since I’ve already written all about it, I won’t rehash the event here. Ultimately, […]